Prize Recipient

Eric Allin Cornell
NIST/University of Colorado/J.I.L.A.

Citation:

"For achieving Bose-Einstein condensation of an atomic gas, for creating techniques for studying the Bose condensate, and for measuring the physical properties of the weakly interacting atomic Bose gas."

Background:

Dr. Cornell received his BS from Stanford University in 1985 and his Ph.D. from M.I.T. in 1990. His doctoral research was on precision mass spectroscopy of single trapped molecular ions. He went to JILA in Boulder, Colorado in 1990 and since 1992 has been a staff scientist with the National Institute of Standards and Technology. He is a fellow of JILA and Professor Adjoint in the Physics department of the University of Colorado.

Dr. Cornell's research interests center around various aspects of laser cooling, including Bose-Einstein condensation and an experiment on atoms guided by optical forces inside hollow glass fibers. He is also attempting to realize laser cooling in the solid state.

Dr. Cornell received the Stratton Award from NIST in 1995, the Carl Zeiss Award in 1996 and the Fritz London Prize in 1996.